Austin, while notably larger than Amarillo, reported more than 1,400 mobile food vendors permitted in the city and Travis County in 2012. Amarillo has 69 permitted, and they range from pushcarts to food trucks, but the city report doesn’t differentiate. The names of the businesses indicate at least half are snow cone stands. Judging from the permit list, customers should be hungry mostly for tacos, tamales, burritos and snow cones.

But finding good locations to do business from a food truck is another theory for why the city lacks the trucks.

“The thing I’ve heard is, ‘Where do you set up?’ That’s the biggest thing,” said Kevin Hawkins, a partner in Panhandle Restaurant Group. “In big cities, there are places to set up and dense population. A few here go to construction sites because the workers don’t have time to lock up their tools and go to lunch.”

Hawkins envisions some changes that could help the environment for budding food truck operators as far as location.

“If they don’t mess this downtown (redevelopment) deal up, that could be a game changer getting WT, Xcel and the stadium going,” Hawkins said.

Chad Montgomery, owner of the Twist’d Texan food truck in Lubbock that serves fusion street food with an Asian influence, said it’s also an issue there.

“Our downtown is probably worse than yours. It’s too far from (Texas) Tech and all there is are bars and offices,” he said. “Some people are working on setting up a food truck lot.”

Montgomery said he is one of 12 other operators with licenses that were made possible when Lubbock City Council set up more business-friendly requirements in December that still limit when food trucks can operate and the distance they can set up from brick-and-mortar restaurants.

“We formed an association and were diplomatic. We didn’t fight the city. We found solutions,” he said.

Banding together has proved a good strategy nationally.

“It will happen if people are vocal enough, but it takes a passionate group,” said Ross Resnick, founder of Roaming Hunger, a business he describes as the easiest way to find and book food trucks across the country.

Shaun May, director of Amarillo’s Environmental Health Department, said it’s not impossible to operate a food truck in Amarillo, but the situation could get better. He has been in the job since March and is still studying the city and its rules. He is also watching state regulators who are working on revisions to the Texas Food Establishment Rules that guide all Texas cities.

“The food section of the (Amarillo) Municipal Code, a lot of that hasn’t been updated since 2000,” May said. “I’ve got to see what the state comes up with first. I’m eager to have a conversation with individuals at the Amarillo Restaurant Association. Part of my job is to be responsive to industry, but also to protect the public.”

There are a variety of permit and inspection requirements, depending on what kind of mobile food operations are involved, such as catering trucks or carts.

The way the “Great Food Truck Race” contestants were able to serve in Amarillo involved issuing temporary permits that go to food servers who set up for no more than 14 consecutive days at special events open to the public.

“It has to be a celebration or a special event like fundraisers for nonprofits,” May said. “We inspected every truck a couple of days before the kickoff.”

He even ate at one of the trucks parked at
ThunderHeads Stadium.

“I didn’t want to stand in line for an hour for a hamburger, but my wife was excited,” May said.

State law requires mobile food establishments to obtain access to a commissary or central food preparation area, and that’s another road block.

Cities typically define that as a restaurant or commercial kitchen for the disposal of waste water, getting fresh water and propane, storing food and supplies and cleaning equipment.

“We’ve had a few people try to make an application, but when we tell them they have to have a commissary, they say they weren’t aware of that. They get disheartened about the extra cost,” May said.

Commissaries aren’t as big a challenge in Lubbock.

“There’s no requirement here,” Montgomery said. “You have to have a designated plan for where you’ll dump waste water and prepare any food. I have to name a place where I’ll park my truck. I park in the driveway.”

Nationally, the situation is much the same.

“A commissary can be interpreted in many different ways. It’s definitely a hurdle. In L.A., it has to be a fixed parking area,” Resnick said. “My recommendation is if food trucks band together, it doesn’t have to be an expensive proposition.”

And the sheer cost of doing business is limiting.

“By the time you pay $50,000, $70,000, $100,000 for a truck, you’ve also got permits and labor,” Hawkins said. “You have to sell a lot of product to justify it.”

Amarillo was the top stop for at least one competitor in Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race.”

“Let me tell you, while I can’t tell you if we made it past Amarillo or not, on our journey, Amarillo was by far our favorite city,” said Tiffany Seth, part of the Momma’s Grizzly Grub team on the reality competition show.

The episode, the third of the season, airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on Food Network, cable channel 65.

Teams hit Amarillo between May 18 and 21, setting up shop at Muttfest, an Amarillo Sox game, along Historic Route 66 and, briefly, Homer’s Backyard Ball, though the music proved to be too loud, Seth said.

But four of the teams spent most of their time in the parking lot of Market Street United, 2530 S. Georgia St., where they were locked down with wheel boots as part of a race challenge.

Seth was initially skeptical that the grocery store would be a good location, but she was soon eating her words.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better spot,” she said.

Chris Stevens, an assistant service manager at Market Street, and other staff members ran supplies to the trucks throughout the day, thanks to brisk sales.

“We ran out of food several times that weekend,” Seth said. “At some point, we went inside and did some shopping, too, but the support from him and the staff allowed us to keep going.”

It was a “team effort,” Stevens said. “We were taking (rotisserie chickens) out to them as fast as they could sell them.”

Food Network officials said the city was chosen after research showed a high interest in food among city residents, as well as location and the convergence of events happening that weekend.

In its third season, the race is focusing on cooks who don’t own their own food truck, forcing them to learn on the fly how to cook and serve crowds in the confines of a mobile kitchen.

Momma’s Grizzly Grub owner Angela Reynolds left her day job as a financial analyst in Wasilla, Alaska, to go on the race, taking along daughter Adriane Richey and best friend Seth, who lives in Missouri.

“It wasn’t that difficult to talk me into it,” Seth said. “I wanted to do it, but it was a hard decision for me to make because I do have two small kids, ages 6 and 10 … that I home-school. It was hard for me to think of leaving them for up to seven weeks for the competition, but I had the full support of my husband and family and friends to help take care of the kids and the animals.

“It was a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity. We couldn’t pass it up.”

Stevens, who got caught up in the race inadvertently, echoed Reynolds’ sentiments.

“I think it was a remarkable event for Amarillo … and United Supermarkets,” he said. “I have to work Sunday … but I’m excited to see it, so I may have to find a recorder.”